Phineas Flynn was told it was his birthday. Not his. But the new person. And that made him feel really guilty, because he wanted to make a good first impression, especially if it was the person's birthday. But he was instead in his room drawing a picture of his best friend.
A second later she was coming quickly up the stairs.
"Phineas!" Candace called, poking her head into his room. "Come on, mom's calling you!"
"Candy!" Phineas called nervously.
His sister seemed to realize he was nervous because she shut the door and walked over to him. "What's wrong?" she asked knowingly. Phineas thought she was very smart and per-th-eptive for a 7 year old. He couldn't pronounce that word anymore, 'cause he was missing his two front teeth.
"Candy, what if they're mean like the guy who killed daddy?!" Phineas exclaimed with tears in his eyes.
Candace's eyes widened, and then saddened in the way they tended to when she knew something that he didn't and that she shouldn't tell him. "Phineas, the guy who killed dad wasn't mean, he was just drun—" she stopped abruptly. "Uh… well. He was just… confused." she finished lamely.
Phineas stared at her, now confused himself. "They're gonna be confused?"
"What? No, no, I just mean—" she sighed again. "Look, just don't judge them before you get to know them, okay? I mean, what's the Golden Rule?"
"Uh…" Phineas struggled to remember. What had mom and Candace told him lately that was really important? "Always wash your hands after you go potty?"
"Um… no… it's 'always treat others the way you want to be treated', remember?"
"Oh, yeah." Phineas said. He paused. "So you're saying that if I'm nice to them, they'll be nice to me too?"
"Yeah, that's pretty much how the world works." Candace said. "For a three year old anyway." She muttered the last part to herself.
Phineas took a deep breath. "Okay, Candy." he looked back at the new bed. "Let's go meet my roommate."
He took his big sister's hand as she led him out of his bedroom, and towards the stairs, where a man with brown hair and glasses was waiting with his mom. He bent down to Phineas' level when he noticed him. "Hello there." he said. He sounded strange, and Phineas ducked slightly behind Candace. "You must be Phineas Flynn. My name is Lawrence Fletcher. It's nice to meet you, but I think there's someone else you'll like a little more than me." He stepped to the side to reveal someone clinging to his leg. He looked exactly like his father, except he had green hair. "This is Ferb." Lawrence said.
Huh. He looked just as nervous as Phineas himself.
Phineas took a deep breath, trying to decide in a brief second what new, incredibly sensitive information about his life to share with these terrifying strangers.
"Hi! My name's Phineas Carnell Flynn and I'm three years old and I made a cuckoo clock that Bucky can fit inside and be the cuckoo and Bucky is my dog and I can do really cool stuff but I need to practice more 'cause I ain't patient enough to do everythin' yet and I mostly draw 'cause of that fact that I jus' mentioned and what's your name?" He said all of this in one breath.
Ferb had now disappeared almost entirely behind his father's leg again. "Quieter, please." he whimpered.
He sounded strange too. Phineas turned to his mother. "Mama, why do they sound so weird?"
"Phineas!" Linda scolded.
But 'Lawrence Fletcher' chuckled. "It's alright. It's called an accent. Sometimes people who come from different areas of the world sound differently when they talk."
"Huh." Phineas said, absorbing this new information. In a second, he was grinning. He put his hands on his knees and leaned around Lawrence's leg to see Ferb again. "Hey Ferb, I like your accent. It sounds cool! You wanna go see your bed?"
Ferb, who was still holding on to his father's leg in terror, was baffled by this 'Phineas Carnell Flynn's' sudden change of attitude. Hadn't he been just as nervous as Ferb not ten seconds ago? What exactly was happening here?
The two parents and Candace both decided to head to the other room and give the two a little time to get to know each other by themselves.
And Phineas, without waiting for much of an answer to his question, grabbed Ferb's hand and Ferb felt himself suddenly being dragged up the stairs very quickly by Phineas Carnell Flynn and his sticky hands. When he got to what was now, he supposed, his and Phineas' shared room, he could see the reason. Phineas' miniature desk across from his bed was covered in lollipops, both wrapped and unwrapped. Ferb made a mental note to wash his hands as quickly as possible.
"So this is your bed," Phineas said, pointing to a purple bed with an empty side of the room. Huh. He could work with that. Get some wood and add a bookshelf above it, a fake nuclear waste container nightstand, another bookshelf on the other side of the bed and a telephone booth to remind him of England…
"And this is my bed!" Phineas yelled, interrupting Ferb's thoughts. He turned to see the 3 year old (according to his father) jumping up and down on top of an inflatable bed that said 'S.S. Phineas.' Overhead was a fish tank with no fish. Ferb flinched and backed away from said bed, certain the bed was going to pop at any minute. But when nothing happened and Phineas continued to happily bounce to some onomatopoeic sounds, Ferb turned his attention to Phineas' half of the room, which looked very full. He had probably had more space before Ferb moved in. It had a various knick-knacks including a tennis racket, a Dippy Bird, and some sort of skull, but most impressive was what appeared to be a full-sized, accurate totem pole.
Phineas noticed Ferb's attention. "Oh." he said sadly. Ferb jumped at the once again seemingly instantaneous switch between emotions. But then again, his father said that was normal for 3 year olds. Maybe he was the weird one. There were times he felt like the weird one.
"My daddy made me that." Phineas continued. "He… he's dead." Phineas teared up and sat down on the bed. He no longer looked like he wanted to jump up and down in joy. "Sometimes I have nightmares about him dying. It's never in the same way though."
Ferb, without much of a conscious decision on his part, walked over and sat down on the bed next to Phineas. "My mum's dead." Ferb said bluntly.
Phineas looked over. "Yeah?" he asked. "Well, I have a— a mum. Maybe we could share?"
At this, Ferb gave a small smile and a nod. He was surprised at how quickly he had agreed to the strange idea. It was a little unorthodox, especially considering the two of them had just met. He just knew he didn't like Phineas sounding upset, and the offer Phineas had just made seemed like the easiest way to stop that. And he had no problem 'sharing' their parents.
Sharing a room, on the other hand…
"FERB!" Phineas yelled, sitting bolt upright in bed at 3 AM. "I KNOW WHAT WE'RE GONNA DO TODAY!"
Ferb suppressed a groan.